30 Days and 30 Bites – Day 21
The Great Chocolate Melt of 2010! Today was what I would pretty much call a dud. I wanted to continue with my “technique” work. Turns out it didn’t work so well. For the sake of ease and productivity, I used the cupcakes I had previously frozen from the pink and green day. After I defrosted them I covered them with store bought cream cheese icing. 
Tough, I know!
The special part of today was supposed to be the toppers for the cupcakes. I thought I would practice free form chocolate melting. I went online and found a bunch of typical clipart pictures. Things like shells, hearts, animals, stars, etc. I printed the pictures out on a couple pieces of paper and taped them to a cookie sheet. Over the top of the pictures I taped a piece of wax paper. The idea was that I would trace the outlines of the shapes with a piping bag filled with chocolate, creating the shape to put on the cupcake. Easy enough, right?
Well, the chocolate melting went fine. The tracing even went fine after I practiced a bit (I do not have the steadiest hand for details like that). I chilled the chocolates and took them out to put on the cupcakes. I literally could not get more than one on a cupcake before they all started melting!!! I tried sticking my hands in ice to keep them cold. I put the spatula on ice that I was pulling them up with. It didn’t matter. Even when I perfected the method to get them off the cookie sheet and onto the cupcake, they still continued to melt.
I think the best thing to do to try to remedy this would be put the ICED cupcakes in the fridge before ever putting the chocolate on. That way, the chocolate will stay cold as soon as it touches the cupcake. But still, doesn’t that mean the cupcakes will ALWAYS have to be cold? Won’t the chocolate still melt as soon as you take it out to sit for an event? Anyone have the answers for me?
I am also attributing the melting to the fact that the chocolate is so thin. But that is the whole point of the free form melting. Oh well. As you can see in the pics, the chocolate pieces I tried to stand on their ends melted and kind of flopped over. If I laid them flat on the cupcake it seemed to work better…for the most part!
Tags: Baking, Cake Decorating, Cakes, chocolate, Cupcakes, frosting, icing, Marissa
July 8th, 2010
[...] During 30 Days and 30 Bites when I tried drawing with melted chocolate? Well, I was incredibly unsuccessful. Maybe not incredibly, but pretty darn close! I tried [...]
July 8th, 2010
may I know what type of chocolate did you used? Did you used the regular chocolates?
July 8th, 2010
I used dark chocolate, which was the big mistake. The only chocolate that I have used now that will hold shape are the chocolate melts you can purchase at any craft or grocery store. I was trying to be a little gourmet and it obviously didn’t work! :o)